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KABUL, Afghanistan - The founding architect of the U.S. Army’s Battlefield Promotions Program is seeking to expand the regulations to include battlefield promotions for senior non-commissioned officer ranks.
"I don’t think we are asking the Department of the Army too much when we say, ‘pay troops for what they are doing’,” said U.S. Army Command Sgt. Maj. Marvin Hill, senior enlisted leader, International Security Assistance Force/U.S. Forces-Afghanistan.
Units often deploy shorthanded. After deploying, units may suffer combat losses. These shortages mean other soldiers must work twice as hard to fill the gaps.
“If a unit is deploying one person short and the commander has to fill the gap by having a staff sergeant promotable serve as a sergeant first class, then obviously the right people are not in the right places,” said Hill.
Currently, 32 promotable staff sergeants and 33 promotable sergeants first class serve in positions above their pay grade. “Promotable” means the soldier has already fulfilled the requirements for promotion and has been selected for promotion from among his peers. Thousands of soldiers, both promotable and not-promotable, have served in positions above their pay grade while deployed to Afghanistan.
“Nobody in America can get away with selecting someone to be an executive or foreman in a corporation and give them the position, give them the responsibility, but not pay them for the job that they are doing,” said Hill. “And they are not asking their guys to put their life on the line.”
For Hill, the solution to the Army’s problem is simple.
“Either pay a promotable staff sergeant for serving as a sergeant first class, or work overtime to get the right skill set in the right grade in the formation that is deploying,” said Hill.
One of the restrictions to senior enlisted promotions is a limitation imposed by Congress that caps the number of soldiers who can be promoted to a senior NCO rank. The changes Hill is proposing would apply only to those soldiers who have already been selected for promotion.
“It should be possible to take a soldier who has been selected by an Army promotion board – an E-7 [sergeant first class] and serving in an E-8 [master sergeant] position while in combat – and promote that soldier,” said Hill.
Senior NCOs already selected for promotion are prioritized for promotion based on the Army’s needs. Hill is looking to make deployments a higher priority for the Army by pushing deployed, promotable sergeants to the head of the promotion line.
“I am talking about accelerated advancement,” said Hill. “A board picked them [for promotion] and said that they are ready. I take them to combat and use them in the position that they were selected for by the board. All we have to do now is pay them – pay them and their families.”
Accelerating the promotion of deployed soldiers presents many challenges, particularly in regards to the concerns of soldiers in the States being asked to wait for their promotion.
However, ensuring troops in combat have leaders now that have the authority necessary for their position – by ensuring they are promoted – is more important, Hill said.
“You won’t [ever] have a totally fair system,” said Hill. “It will present a challenge, and it will be hard. But just because it is hard doesn’t mean you don’t go after it.”
When in combat, familiarity with individuals’ strengths and weaknesses is important. The battlefield promotion changes could help leaders like Command Sgt. Maj. Christopher Riley, from the 86th Expeditionary Signal Battalion, deployed from Fort Huachuca, Ariz., maintain unit cohesion after deployment.
“I believe it would help, purely from a management point of view,” said Riley. It is better to promote and position a staff sergeant promotable that the unit is already familiar with into a sergeant first class position than to get assigned a new sergeant first class while in a combat zone, he said.
These changes could have an impact on troops before 2012.
“If acted on immediately and with the right energy behind it, changes such as these could take effect within six to eight,” said Hill, comparing these changes to the time it took to establish the current Battlefield Promotions Program, which has already helped more than 1,500 junior enlisted soldiers receive promotions since April 2008.
For more information on the Battlefield Promotions Program, consult Army Regulation 600-8-19, Chapter 11, and the U.S. Forces-Afghanistan BFP Standard Operating Procedure.
| Date Taken: | 03.18.2011 |
| Date Posted: | 03.18.2011 07:44 |
| Story ID: | 67277 |
| Location: | KABUL, AF |
| Web Views: | 151 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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